Audiobook platform Audioteka to increase number of readers in Turkey

DAILY SABAH

ISTANBUL

Published11.03.201900:02

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While our lives get easier with the development of technology, this transformation changes the habits of users day by day. Polish audiobook platform Audioteka, which was founded in 2009 in order to put the excuse of having no time to read aside, has entered the Turkish market.

Audioteka Founder and CEO Marcin Beme said that Turkey is a perfect market that adapts to new technologies quickly. "People in metropolises like Ankara, İzmir and Istanbul cannot spare enough time to read as much of their time is lost in using crowded public transportation. This lost time can be used with audio books. We think the time spent on public transportation creates great potential for audio books. The only need of those who wish to listen to audiobooks through Audioteka is a phone and headphones, which we all have today," Beme added.

Noting that the global audiobook market grows more than 40 percent a year, he said that this growth will not kill the physical book market. The founder said, "People who like to read will always read books. People listen to audio books while traveling in public transport or their cars, while playing sports or cleaning. In other words, they listen to them when their hands or eyes are busy with other things. Audiobooks prevent people from staying away from books and makes them enjoy reading and listening. Therefore, we see that audiobooks increase physical book sales in the market, as well."

Audioteka Turkey General Director Göktuğ Oğuz said they have been working hard to provide the best and most quality service since the last year. Oğuz said that they have prepared strong infrastructure for the Turkish market in this period and signed an agreement with more than 20 publishing houses to date. Oğuz said that they choose the best books in the market and dub them, and added that the number of publishing houses with which they have made agreements with will increase in the next few months. "We will make efforts to reach more users starting this year. In this context, we have joined forces with n11.com, Cafe Nero and Samsung," he remarked.

Making everyone love reading

Saying that audiobook address a large mass, Oğuz stressed, "The most important formula of instilling the habit of reading in the youth is to make them love reading. We, as Audioteka, are moving in this direction. Audiobooks present a chance for people to meet books everywhere and all the time. We are all raised on stories. We are at an age where we are about to forget how to visualize stories in our minds. We should offer books boosting the imaginative power to our children as physical books and well-told ones [stories]. There are appropriate books for everyone. We want to include stories in our lives again."

Works for the visually-impaired

The general director stated that audiobooks open the doors of new worlds to the visually-impaired, "We observe that the interest of visually-impaired individuals is above average in our markets, including in Turkey. In the next period, we will conduct special works to reach more visually-impaired people."He highlighted that the production and distribution of audiobooks are cheaper than physical books. "Therefore, more publishing houses will gradually recognize the value of audiobooks as we have observed in the other markets of Audioteka. Turkish users can find nearly 1,800 audiobooks in English, French, German and Russian. This number increases continuously. We plan to add different publications apart from books to the platform with different models in the future," he said.